Harden hits late winner as Rockets beat Curry-less Warriors

Houston’s James Harden scored 35 points, including the game-winner with 2.7 seconds left, as the Rockets capitalized on Stephen Curry’s absence to beat Golden State 97-96 on Thursday, narrowing the deficit in their NBA first-round playoff series to 2-1.

The other two series contested Thursday also stand at 2-1, as Oklahoma City comfortably beat Dallas, and Toronto won at Indiana.

The game at Houston built to a late climax, as Shaun Livingston stole a pass from Trevor Ariza to create Ian Clark’s layup which put Golden State up by a point with 10.6 seconds left.

Harden then took it to the other end and stepped back for the jump shot to win it.

“The last shot was typical of what James does,” Houston coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “The move, we’ve seen before. The finish, we’ve seen before. You do get spoiled by it at times, but in these biggest of moments, you can’t help but appreciate it.”

Golden State had a chance to win it after that, but Draymond Green dribbled the inbounds pass off his foot and out of bounds.

“I cost us the game,” Green said. “The world will think I’m talking about that last turnover but I’m not. That happens. I was awful the whole game. I care about that turnover, but I cost us the game way before then.”

Marreese Speights came off the bench to lead the Warriors with 22 points and Klay Thompson had 17.

Dwight Howard added 13 points, 13 rebounds and had two blocks for Houston.

Curry was feeling better on Thursday and wanted to play, but the Warriors decided the chance of him re-injuring his ankle before it was fully healed wasn’t worth the risk. Coach Steve Kerr said they will have a better feel for his availability for Game 4 on Sunday after they see how he responds to the next two days of practice

“Whether Steph’s here or not, we should perform at a high level, which we did for much of the game, but we’ve got to eliminate some of the mistakes,” Kerr said.

Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant bounced back from the worst shooting game of his playoff career with 34 points which led the Thunder to a 131-102 victory over Dallas.

Durant had seven field goals midway through the second quarter on nine shots, compared with the 33 attempts he needed to seven in a Game 2 loss.

The 2014 MVP scored 20 points in the first half, when the Thunder led by as many as 19 points.

Game 4 is Saturday in Dallas.

Dirk Nowitzki played despite a right knee bruise and scored 16 points for the Mavericks, who missed 10 of their first 12 shots from 3-point range.

Russell Westbrook scored 20 of his 26 points in the second half and had 15 assists.

Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan rebounded from his postseason shooting slump, and he and Kyle Lowry scored 21 points to lead the Raptors to a 101-85 win at Indiana.

The Raptors reclaimed the home-court advantage they squandered by losing the series opener last weekend.

Indiana was led by Paul George, who had 25 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. Rookie Myles Turner scored 11 of 17 points in the second half. Game 4 is Saturday in Indianapolis.DeRozan was 10 of 37 from the field and 0 for 5 from 3-point range through the first two games. On Monday he finished 7 of 19 from the field.